Stop Your Dog's Destructive Behavior

His constant digging and pawing was cute when he was a puppy. Now? Not so much. Unfortunately, you're the one who probably taught him to be that way. Dog trainer Kathy Santo tells you how to teach a new dog better tricks.

Our 18-month-old dog is digging up our sprinkler heads. When he was a puppy we would turn them on to watch him bite at the water sprays — when they popped back into the ground he would pounce and paw at them. It was hysterically funny. But now he's progressed to digging them up. What should we do?

I think you should go sit in the corner and write "I will never intentionally condition my puppy to do something destructive" 100 times, and then we'll talk. Tell me, please, that you or someone watching that scene said, "Do we really want to teach him that this is a good thing to do?" How do you feel about hand-watering your lawn? I'm serious. The fastest way to extinguish a behavior is to no longer allow the dog to engage in it. You can either keep your dog in the house when you run the sprinklers or allow him to be outside with you while you water with a hose. If he leaps and bites at the hose, put him back inside. Next, supervise him any time he's outside so that if he attempts to dig at the sprinkler you can correct him with a verbal "Ah-ah" and redirect him to a toy that you want him to play with. Let this be a warning — what's entertaining today could become a bad habit tomorrow.